Woman at scene of hit-and-run accident

HOOVERSVILLE - "I came and saw them lying in the street," said a tearful mother outside the Hooversville Borough building last night.

She had gone there to straighten out her daughter's light bill following an early Sunday morning accident that left her daughter in the hospital.

"I have a scanner in my house. I heard two pedestrians were down in the street, and I just knew something was wrong. I put on my shoes and I came and saw them lying in the street," said Georgiana Stanko, whose daughter and granddaughter were hit and run over by a car outside a tavern on Main Street in Hooversville.

"Lorraine (Bodziak) was lying there covered with blood. I kept calling her name and she didn't answer me. She just couldn't breathe," Stanko said. "Every breath she takes now is a really hard job for her."

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Her granddaughter, Bodziak's niece, was also hit by the car, according to Stanko. Jennifer Ketchock, 27, received a broken arm, sprained ankle and cuts and bruises when the car's passenger door slammed into her when she was trying to pull her aunt out from beneath the car, kept calling out for someone to hold her hand.

But her grandmother could not get around the emergency medical team trying to help Ketchock.

And by that time Stanko had began to come out of shock and "I was just screaming," she said.

Yesterday Bodziak was released from intensive care but is still considered critical, said her mother. The hospital staff indicated to her that the last thing Bodziak needs is to get upset, so her mother decided to face the Hooversville Borough Council and find out just how much and when she could pay for her daughter's light bill.

"I don't know her finances," she said several times.

Her daughter has a local business, the North Star Inn, and her family wants to keep it running and open for her when she gets better.

That may be a while, Stanko said. The Hooversville resident said her daughter had a collapsed lung and shattered ribs. "She was hit with such force that the doctors could still see tire marks on her stomach," she said.

Stanko said she can't sleep because of the incident.

"It was absolutely horrible," she said. "Now, I don't know what I'm feeling. I haven't slept for two days and two nights."

Another resident who witnessed the incident also finds sleep fleeting now. "I went to bed and I had nightmares. But, I'm dealing with it," said Jennifer Stevanus.

As someone involved with medical emergencies, Stevanus has seen a lot in her time. "But you don't expect it to be on your own street and you don't expect to see it happen," she said.

Sally Blue who lives diagonally across from where the incident occurred said "I think the medical crew did a wonderful job. They were profession and knew what to do."

Blue still has a hard time comprehending everything. "Things just don't happen here," Blue said. "All night long it was peaceful. Then all hell broke loose. I just heard a commotion, and that was unusual at that time of morning. I came out and I saw bodies."

Hooversville and Conemaugh Township station 640 responded to the 9-1-1 call by Stevanus.

"I called 9-1-1, I knew something was going to end up happening," Stevanus said.

In order to help reduce the trauma of the incident, neighbors are talking about it.